USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Boxford > The history of Boxford, Essex County, Massachusetts, from the earliest settlement known to the present time: a period of about two hundred and thirty years > Part 13
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their wages, time, and trouble." * This petition was granted, changing the terms into a bounty of one hundred pounds for every scalp taken during one year. Capt. Love- well was a bold and adventurous officer, and, stimulated by this offer, he immediately led his company against the hostile savages. A part of his company was composed of Boxford men, - Phineas Foster, Jacob Ames, Jeremiah Perley, Jethro Ames, Jacob Perley, and perhaps others.
In February, 1725, the last year of the war, the company, numbering sixty-two persons, began their march on snow- shoes, carrying their provisions on their backs. Toward Winnipiseogee Lake (N. H.) they came on the Indian trail. During their march they discovered a bear in his den in a hollow tree, which, by help of their dogs, they killed. He could not be got out where he went in, having become so fat during his winter's residence. They soon had a fire, and roasted, and feasted on, his flesh, - a very timely supply, as their provisions were nearly exhausted. Continuing their march, they soon came to the above-named lake, where they lost the trail, there being no snow on the ice. There appeared to follow the Indians a large flock
* History of Dunstable, p. III.
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of ravens, lighting on and hovering over the trees on an island of the lake, indicating their situation, which was also considered ominous of the destruction of their enemies.
The party, soon after following these ravens, found them- selves within hearing of the Indians, who were hunting beaver and other game; and, having had a "great hunt" that day, Capt. Lovewell thought best to halt, and wait till the Indians, from eating heartily at supper, should sleep soundly. They built no fires, and took the precaution to tie up the mouths of the dogs, and keep them close, so as to surprise the enemy at midnight. They attacked them in camp while asleep, about one o'clock, killing eight and wounding one; another, in attempting to run away, was overtaken by the dogs, and despatched, so that all were destroyed, nine men and a boy. The boy was armed with a lancet on a pole, as was supposed, to drive and torment prisoners. It was thought these Indians were going to Cocheco (now Dover), to destroy the few families settled there. The Indians were scalped, and their bodies left as food for the ravens .* Lovewell and his men then marched to Dover, N. H., thence to Andover, Mass., where they - were entertained at Joseph Parker's, from which place the men probably separated to their respective homes, without the loss of a single man.
In 1733, as payment for their services, the Legislature granted the soldiers in this expedition wild land in Sun- cook, N. H., and Petersham, Mass.
After the roads were laid out, the minds of our carly settlers were troubled about keeping them repaired for sum- mer travel. This was at first accomplished by hiring men to do the work, paying them out of the regular town-tax ; but Oct. 22, 1717, the town voted to repair the highways; by a separate rate assessed for that purpose, to equal a certain sum annually ; also, the right was given to each * See The Book of the Indians, Book III., Chap. IX.
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highway-tax-payer to work out his part of the tax if he de- sired to do so. The town was divided into wards; and in each ward was appointed a surveyor to superintend opera- tions, and to collect the highway-tax. The following rates or prices of labor were adopted by the town two years later : " Those that labored from the beginning of May till the first of September shall have two shillings and six pence per day ; and from the first of September to the end of the year, two shillings per day ; and one shilling a day for a pair of oxen, and six pence a day for a tumberell or cart."
In 1751 sixteen pounds were raised to repair the high- ways that year ; also, " voted to allow one shilling and eight pence per day for such as shall work at mending roads ; and eight pence per day for a yoke of oxen, and four pence for a cart." In 1761 each one had to work out his highway- tax in the months of May and June.
In 1780 £3,600 (which, by the depreciation of the cur- rency at that time, would only be, in gold or silver, £96)* were raised by the town to repair the highways that year. The following year, £3,000 (about £75 in gold) were raised for that purpose.
Before the year 1788 the roads were not cleared of snow in winter. They were left as the heavy storms of years ago left them, filled several feet deep with the snow, and level with the tops of the walls, - the snow-storms of those days being much worse than those of the present time. Those
* This item shows how almost valueless was the paper currency which was issued by the Government at the close of the Revolution. A week's board then in paper money was $ 105; but, in silver or gold, only about $ 2 or $ 2.50. People were greatly involved in debt; there was but little coin in circulation, and paper money and public securities had become nearly worthless ; and many men, by taking this emission-money in payment for their sales, were ruined. In 1780 one gold dollar was worth $ 4,000 in paper money. The new emission-money, which was soon after issued, was worth considerably more than the old.
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were the days of snow-shoes, and horseback-riding, which was the prevailing custom 'of the inhabitants of New England from the time of the first settlement up to the period of which we are writing. But about this time wheel-vehicles began to be more common ; and sleighs were introduced, which bore off a large degree of popularity among the inhabitants. These improvements necessitated the removal of the snow from the roads so as to make them passable.
In 1799 the town voted to allow a man seventy-five, a yoke of oxen forty, a cart twenty, and a plough forty cents per day, for working in repairing the highway. This rate has grown to a larger and larger sum, until now the price per hour for a man is fifteen or twenty cents. The law in regard to a highway-tax-payer's right to work out his tax on the road has been also changed to a law that gives the surveyor the sole right to work out the entire ward's tax himself if he chooses to do so.
A petition signed by Samuel Symonds, John Howe, Francis Elliot, Daniel Kenney, Edward Nichols, and nine or ten others, praying that they may be set off to join with others belonging to the neighboring towns, to be made a separate town, was presented to the town at their annual meeting in March, 1727. It was put to vote, and passed in the negative. At the next annual meeting it was again presented, put to vote, and passed in the affirmative. These, together with other families belonging to the towns of Topsfield, Salem, and Andover, after obtaining leave from their respective towns to be incorporated into a new town, petitioned the General Court to grant them a town- ship charter. Their request was complied with; and they were incorporated, under an act of that honorable body, June 20, 1728, as a town, bearing the name of Middleton. Hitherto Boxford and Salem adjoined ; now Middleton was located between them. The line was consequently changed
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to that which now divides Middleton and Boxford. Some six hundred acres were taken from Boxford, and the popu- lation was reduced about a hundred, by this subtraction.
It had been the custom for many years to have timber cut in New Hampshire on the banks of the Merrimac River, and floated down the stream to the coast, where it was transformed into vessels. Most, and perhaps all, of this timber was used at Newburyport and Salisbury. There being nothing but the exertions of the ship-builders to stop the logs from being carried out at sea when a storm was sweeping along the coast, thousands of tons of valua- ble ship-timber were thus often lost. The people of north- ern Essexshire at length, deeming it too great a loss to the colony, petitioned the General Court to have a boom placed across the river between Gage's and Griffin's fer- ries, just above Haverhill. The Boxford petition was sent in February, 1727, and was signed by Stephen Peabody and Jonathan Tyler, in behalf of the town. These petitions were granted by the Court at their next sitting. The boom was to stop the logs, from which they were conveyed to the ship-builders, probably by being made into rafts .*
A tannery was erected here about 1725 by Francis Perley. It was in operation in 1751, and later. He re- sided on the farm, now in the possession of Mr. DeWitt C. Mighill, the old house in which he lived having been removed and the present dwelling erected, some sixty years ago. Mr. Perley hired some workmen, and, from some accounts that we have seen, we should judge that he did considerable business. This was the first tannery erected in the town; and, until near the close of the eighteenth century, in it were probably tanned all the hides produced by the farmers of Boxford.
Jacob Smith and Ebenezer Sherwin were the coopers at the time of which we are writing. Zebediah and Jeremiah
*. See the original petition in the Mass. Archives, Vol. CV., p. 124.
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Foster were wheelwrights. Josiah Bridges was a black- smith about 1700. John Stewart was a blacksmith about 1730 ; and Solomon Stewart kept a kind of store, we pre- sume, as we find him selling stationery and legal blanks. Ephraim Smith was the only cabinet-maker in the town at this time, of which we have learned. John Woster was a basket-maker, and made most of his neighbors' baskets.
Nathan Dresser moved from Rowley to Boxford in 1728, and immediately erected a blacksmith-shop near his residence on the old Dresser road, in the East Parish. Here he did an extensive business. His son, John Dresser, born here in 1735, worked at that trade with his father when he became old enough, and, after his father's death, carried on the business alone. John had a son Nathan born to him in 1790, who became his successor in the business. Nathan Dresser died Sept. 13, 1829 ; and his widow Susanna, the following year, married Elijah Wilson of Salem, N.H., who resided on the old place, and demolished the shop about 1835. In shoeing horses in early days, it was customary for the customer to furnish the stock, - if he did not he would be charged so much extra for finding it. The shoes were manufactured only as fast as they were needed. Such items as this render the early accounts inter- esting : "June 22, 1735, cr. by shoeing horse, all round ; I found iron for one shoe." The coal used by the smith was the charcoal of our ancestors, which was manufactured by himself or some of his neighbors. It was not uncom- mon among the wealthier families to have kilns, in which they burned their charcoal. Some families in ye olden time did little else than burn charcoal ; one of these being undoubtedly Richard Tyler's, as he appears to sell consider- able coal, and buy a great deal of " swamp-wood," out of which it was manufactured.
The old cemetery in the West Parish was the first one used there. The most ancient gravestone now standing
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there bears the following inscription, which proves its antiquity : -
HERE LYES BURIED THE BODY OF
HEPHZIBAH Ye WIFE
OF IABEZ DORMAN WHO DIED FEBRUARY Ye 4 1716 IN Ye 35 YEAR OF HER AGE.
In May, 1785, the parish bought of Mr. Tyler Porter, for thirty shillings, a piece of land, which they annexed to the original area, and " fenced the front side with a handsome stone wall, four feet high, and the other three sides with a common stone wall, three and a half feet high." This is probably the same wall which now surrounds the premises, except on the south side. A few years ago another strip of ground was annexed to the south side.
The Harmony Cemetery near the residence of B. S. Barnes, Esq., is nearly, if not quite, as old as the preced- ing. The oldest headstone there bears the following in- scription : -
HERE LYES BURIED THE BODY, OF FAITH BOOTMAN, Ye WIFE OF MATHEW BOOTMAN WHO DIED MARCH, Ye 4, 1717 & IN THE 23 YEAR OF HER AGE.
UNDER THIS TURF YOU MAY BEHOLD A LAMB OF GOD FET FOR Ye FOLD.
The original plot was only about half the size of the present. It extended toward the road as far as the tomb of Thomas Perley. June 3, 1766, it was enlarged by the
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purchase of the new part, for four pounds and three shillings, of Thomas Wood (who lived across the road), by twenty- three * of the families in the vicinity.
The first mention made of colored people in Boxford is about 1730. From that time to 1780 the names of some twenty-five appear upon the records. On the adoption of the State Constitution, in 1780, they all became free; after that time but few, perhaps not more than three or four, resided in the town. At present there are three residents of color.
The following are some of the names of the early slaves, viz. : Tamsin, Notur, Flora, Candace, Rose, Cæsar, Primus, Hagar, Titus, Phillis, Dinah, Scipio, and Pompey. Tamsin belonged to Benjamin Porter ; was born about 1720, and had several children. She was noted for the foul use of strong liquor. Mark Snelling was a mulatto, born about 1720, and lived most of the time with Dr. Wood. He took to himself a wife, and became the father of Asa Snelling (who died at Phineas Perley's, in 1823, aged eighty-six years), whom our older residents remember. Dinah, born about 1759, was a slave of Deacon Thomas Chadwick from four years of age. About 1800 she went to live with her sister in North Andover. In 1826 she was still living there, having been almost blind for some time. The families of Chadwick and Porter probably owned most of the slaves, though scveral families held them as servants. The Rev. John Cushing had a small negro-boy named Timon. Most of the slaves appear to have been owned in the West Parish.
A queer character, who was at the height of her career a
* Their names were as follows, viz. : Thomas Perley, Moses Perley, Paul Prichard, Jonathan Wood, Aaron Wood, William Perley, Daniel Nurse, Asa Perley, Joseph Hale, jun., Moses Hale, Francis Perley, Solomon Wood, Huldah Perley, Nathan Wood, Joseph Hale, Richard Peabody, Nathaniel Perley, Nathaniel Perkins, John Butman, Jacob Hazen, Ezekiel Jewett, Benjamin Perley, and John Hale, all of Boxford.
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century and a half ago, was an old woman known for miles around as " Mother Dowen." She lived in a cave, which was an excavation made on the southern declivity of a hill, not far from the residence of Mr. Gardner S. Morse. The sides of the cave were stoned up, and the top covered with boards or similar material. Her maiden name was Mary Snelling. She had several children, and her husband (Robert Dowen, whom she married in Haverhill, Nov. 13, 1719) was dead. For a living, she stole sheep, and, to hide her thefts, threw the refuse of the animals into Mare Pond. One of her children, Mary, was admitted to the Second Church in 1744, and in 1751 married Amos Foster of Upper Ashuelot. Another, John, born about 1727, was bound out by the selectmen, June 21, 1739, to Ebenezer Webster, a farmer of Haverhill, for nine years and six months.
CHAPTER VII.
INCORPORATION OF THE PARISHES, & C.
INCORPORATION OF THE SECOND PARISH. - FIRST SECOND-PAR- ISH MEETING OF ITS INHABITANTS. - THEIR MEETING-HOUSE. -REV. JOHN CUSHING SETTLED. - THEIR CHURCH-COVENANT. - DEACONS CHOSEN. - A PART OF ANDOVER ANNEXED TO THE SECOND PARISH. - FIRST FIRST-PARISH MEETING OF ITS INHABITANTS. - NEW MEETING-HOUSE. - REV. MR. ROGERS' DISMISSION. - TROUBLE WITH HIM AND HIS HEIRS. - HIS MINISTRY AND LIFE.
OTHING occurred out of the regular routine of a pastor's duties during the first thirty years of Rev. Mr. Rogers' pastorate. In that time, however, great changes had been going on in the society. As we have before inferred, the meeting-house had been rather shabbily built, and before it had been in existence thirty years was regarded as almost unfit for use. In a warrant calling a town-meeting in December, 1730, an article was inserted to see if the town would build a new meeting-house. It was put to vote, and passed in the negative. It was again voted on in January, 1734, with the same result. The reason of this was, that the north- western part of the town had increased in population to such an extent that they were able to maintain a minister among themselves. Most of them attended and belonged to the churches in Bradford and Andover. In 1730, or about that time, they conceived the idea of erecting a church of their own. In view of this, they had repeatedly
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resisted the older part of the town in their endeavors to obtain a vote of the town to build a new meeting-house.
Before the north-western inhabitants endeavored to be separated from the south part of the town, and made into a lawful precinct by themselves, they had got their timber prepared for the frame, and all the materials ready to prosecute the erection of a meeting-house, so that it was raised on the thirteenth day of June, 1734, and finished so that they had preaching in it that summer. This edifice was situated in the "meeting-house lot," a little way south of the new cemetery. In the following winter they prepared a petition, which they sent to the General Court, praying that they might be set off, and be incorporated into a separate precinct. The following is a copy of the petition : -
" A petition of Samuel Tyler & other inhabitants of the northerly part of the Town of Boxford shewing that they live at a great distance from the place of public worship in said town, so that many of their familys are detained at home on the Lord's day by reason of that diffi- culty, that they have erected a meeting house in that part of the . Town, And at their own Charge supported the Preaching of the Gospel among them, and therefore praying that they and their families and estates may be freed from the charge (which they till now have borne) of supporting the minister in the other part of the town and be erected into a separate precinct by the following Bounds, Viz. From a pine tree standing in Andover line northerly to the lower end of long pond, then upon the pond to the upper end thereof, then between land of Dr Wood and Worster's farm and land of Jonathan Kym- ball and Samuel Spafford to Rogers tree, and so bounded on Rowley, Bradford and Andover."
The petition was read in the House of Representatives on Thursday, April 10, 1735 ; and the petitioners were ordered to serve the town of Boxford with a copy of the petition, that the town might show cause, if they had any, why the prayer of the petitioners should not be granted.
Three families there were against their being organized
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into a separate parish, but were desirous of being annexed to Bradford. These families (John Peabody's, John Hov- ey's, and George Carleton's) prepared and sent to the General Court a petition embodying their views of the matter, to counteract that of Samuel Tyler and others. In the Council it was read, and referred to the next May session.
The subject came up before the Court the second time, Wednesday, June 4, 1735, when the petition (Samuel Tyler and others') was again read, together with the answer of the town of Boxford ; and the parties being heard at the " board," and the matter fully considered, it was ordered that (in answer to the petition of Samuel Tyler and others) Samuel Thaxter, Joseph Dwight, and John Cush- ing, jun., Esqs., should be a committee to view the situation, and consider the circumstances of the petitioners, as well as the petition of John Peabody, John Hovey, and George Carleton, with their situation and circumstances, seasonably notifying the town of Boxford of their committee, and that they report to the Court at their next sitting what they judge proper to be done thereon; and that the petition aforesaid be referred to the next sitting of the Court for further consideration. On the same day the petition of John Peabody and others was brought up, but was referred to the next sitting of the Court. The committee of the Legislature came to Boxford, and after examining all parties interested, and the situation of the premises, reported that the prayer of the petition of Samuel Tyler and others ought to be granted. Accordingly, June 28, 1735, the Legislature ordered that the report of the committee should be accepted, and that the petitioners, together with John Peabody and others above mentioned, and their families and estates, should be set off "a distinct precinct," and that the charge of the committee, which amounted to thirteen pounds and three pence, be paid by the petitioners. The Council con-
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curred with the House in the order, July I. The East Parish also came into existence at the same time.
In the House of Representatives, Wednesday, July 2, 1735, it was ordered "that Mr. Luke Hovey, one of the principal inhabitants of the new precinct, be authorized and empowered to assemble the freeholders and other qualified voters, as soon as may be, in some convenient place, to make choice of principal officers to stand till the anniver- sary meeting in March next." Accordingly a parish-meeting was called, and held on the twenty-second day of the same month, this being their first parish-meeting. The follow- ing officers were chosen : For assessors, Cornelius Brown, John Kimball, and John Woster; collector of taxes, John Chadwick; treasurer, Capt. John Tyler ; and parish-clerk, Zebadiah Foster. Mr. Foster held the office of clerk until 1747, when Joseph Hovey was chosen ; Mr. Hovey was superseded by Stephen Runnels in 1763, and Mr. Runnels by William Foster in 1771. John Cushing, son of the first minister in the West Parish, was chosen clerk the next year, and held the office for a long period.
At a meeting Aug. 12, the parish "voted to appropriate fifty pounds for preaching, as far as it will go from the time they were made a parish." At this meeting it was voted to have the pews of the church in two bodies. They had not built any of the pews as yet, nor laid any of the floor in the galleries, which was voted to be done. Aug. 28, they chose Daniel Wood, Job Tyler, and John Woster, a committee to oversee and manage the work of finishing the meeting- house so far as it was voted. At this meeting Ensign Luke Hovey was ordered to provide " a Law Book, a Clerk book & an assessors Book," the two last being well pre- served at the present time. It was also voted that the first Tuesday in March should be the day of their annual meet- ing. Dec. I, 1735, it was voted "to Build the Gallerys Stears and Build the fronts of all the Gallery, - and three
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Seats In Each Gallery." Feb. 12, 1735-36, voted "to Lath and plaister the meeting house and to putt In Joyce In the Beames to plaister on and to Case the Winddows." March 2, voted to "Ceaill the meeting house With Boards from the Bottom to the Bottom of the Windows Round." Also, voted to "plaister ye meetting house overhead and under the gallieryes With the Walls, only what is Excepted In the above Sd voat."
Before the parish was incorporated as a legal district, the inhabitants had preaching among them for some time ; but, as no record was commenced until after its incorpora- tion, we have no means of knowing the particulars. Their records say that Mr. John Rogers preached until Dec. I, 1735, for which service he was paid two pounds per Sunday. Feb. 12, 1735-36, it was voted to hire Mr. John Cushing to preach the next quarter, which he did. When this quarter was out, April 22, 1736, the parish voted to set Thursday, May 13, apart as "a day of fasting in order to call a minister and take advice of other ministers." Revs. John Rogers of Boxford, Barnard of Andover, Parsons of Bradford, and Chandler of Rowley, were invited " as ye ministers to give advice & assist in ye Sd day of fasting." Rev. John Cushing, who was then supplying the pulpit, was evidently proposed ; as a committee was chosen, May 25, " to discourse with Mr. Cushing, and know the terms he will settle on, or whether he inclines to settle."
Dec. 9, 1736, was kept as a day of fasting and prayer by the people of the West Parish, previous to the ordina- tion, and in order to the gathering of the church, at which several of the neighboring ministers were invited to be present. The exercises were as follows : Rev. Mr. Bar- nard of Andover began with prayer ; Rev. Mr. Parsons of Bradford preached from Eph. ii. 20; and Rev. Mr. Bar- nard (?) "incorporated the church." As soon as it was in-
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corporated, the church gave a unanimous call to Rev. Mr. Cushing, who was present, "to settle in the work of ye Gospel ministry among them ; " to which invitation he as- sented, as he had done before the church was fully em- powered to call a minister. The 29th of the same month, Thursday, was appointed as the day of ordination. The neighboring churches were invited to be present by their elders and delegates, to assist in the ordination. On the day appointed the Rev. Mr. Cushing was ordained to the gospel ministry there by the following exercises : Rev. Mr. Balch of Bradford began with prayer ; Rev. Mr. Phillips of Andover preached from Matt. xxviii. 18-20; Rev. Mr. Cushing of Salisbury gave the charge; Rev. Mr. Barnard of Andover gave the right hand of fellowship ; Rev. Mr. Parsons of Bradford concluded with prayer; and the four last-mentioned gentlemen imposed hands.
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